Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Here I am, Lord -- Lectionary Meditation

Sometimes it comes after a bit of
hesitation, and even a bit of self-doubt, but ultimately the prophet will come
around and answer the call of God, saying something to the effect of: “Here I am Lord, send me.” You may have made this declaration yourself,
perhaps singing with deep conviction, or perhaps by rote, the chorus of Daniel
Schutte’s song:

Here
I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I
will go Lord, if you lead me. I will
hold your people in my heart. (Chalice Hymnal, 452).

David Edwards has set up a similar
refrain in his somewhat less well-known hymn “You Have Called Me.”

Who
will go into the darkness where my people live in fear?

Who
will speak of truth and charity so all of them can hear?

If
you go where I am sending you, I will always be near.

Here
I am, go for me, here I am. (Chalice Hymnal, 455)

Who
has ears to hear? Who has the conviction to answer the call and the courage to
follow through on this calling to bear witness to the revelation of God?

On
this second Sunday of Epiphany, following upon the celebration of the Baptism
of Jesus, which sealed his own calling from God, we hear other call stories –
those of Samuel and Philip and Nathaniel.
What do these stories say to us about how God calls us? But the question isn’t merely how the call
comes, but what this call means to our lives.
What is required of us? Perhaps
the answer to the question explains the reticence with which the prophets respond
to God’s calling. So, shall we go out
into the desert? Shall we leave behind
the comforts of home to become itinerant preachers?

And as we ponder our own callings this weekend, we cannot do so without contemplating the call of Martin Luther King, Jr. How did his sense of calling express itself? Does it offer us wisdom as to how we should be present with God in the World?

The three texts that
lay before us this week have points of connection, but we must not force the
connection. I’m aware that the
lectionary is not always a reliable witness to the connections between
texts. When we read these texts this
week, we recognize they have within them a number of trajectories that we could
take. And, the reading from 1
Corinthians 6 may offer us the most possibilities, but it can also be the most
controversial of the texts. One can take
from this a rather moralistic word, but surely Paul has in more in mind than
good morals. Behavior here is connected
to the ultimate message, which is the way in which we live out the call of God –
for as Paul makes clear in Christ we become the Temple of God.

Samuel’s
call story is fairly well known to many Christians. His is a miraculous life, for he was born to
a woman unable to conceive, but she prayed hard, and her prayers were
answered. Her way of giving thanks was
to deliver her beloved son to the priest to raise and to mentor. And so Samuel grows up serving at the altar
of God with Eli, and his less than honorable sons. The days are difficult. The Philistines are at the door and rarely
was a Word from the LORD heard. The
people were without a shepherd, or so it seemed. Eli seems honorable enough, but he’s lost
control of his sons, whom he assumed would succeed him (why preachers think
that it’s a good idea for their children to inherit their pulpits is beyond me
– of course I needn’t worry, my son has no interest in my job!).

This
particular passage from 1 Samuel 3 finds Eli asleep in his room, while Samuel
is sleeping before the altar of God. The
text says that as yet, Samuel didn’t know the LORD, even though he was serving
at the altar. Being an ex-acolyte I have
some sense of what this means, but I never slept in front of the altar. As he is sleeping, Samuel hears a voice,
calling his name. Not knowing who was
speaking, Samuel went to Eli, but Eli was asleep, and his master told Samuel to
go back to sleep. This would happen
again, and Eli would reply in the same way.
When Samuel heard his name a third time, and perhaps beginning to be
perturbed with Eli, Eli realizes that something unique is happening. Samuel is hearing the voice of God, and so
Eli tells his young charge to answer the next time with the words “Speak, Your servant is listening.” So, when the LORD calls a fourth time, Samuel
is ready, and he responds as Eli directed.
From this response comes Samuel’s prophetic career. He becomes the one through whom God calls
first Saul and then David.

Samuel
hears the voice of God, and responds, but he does so only because he is guided
by a mentor. We should never forget the
role that Eli plays in this story. He
may not have the best of sons (neither would Samuel), but he knew that God must
be calling Samuel, and he gave him the guidance he needed, so that the voice of
God might be heard. Who is it that has
helped us discern the voice of God?

There
is another call story in the Gospel of John, but we’ll wait for a moment before
getting there. First we hear this word
from Paul that concerns the question of freedom and responsibility for those
who are called by and filled by the Holy Spirit. Samuel serves God at the altar in the
Tabernacle, but in this text the readers are reminded that not only do they
serve God in God’s Temple, but they are God’s Temple, and thus, they should
behave appropriately. The focus here is
on sexual immorality. There are plenty
of scholarly examinations of this text, which carries the phrase “the two will
become one flesh.” It is a word we hear
and reflect upon in weddings, for it is the assumption that in marriage the two
become one. Paul is concerned about
those who are sleeping with those are not part of the body of Christ, and thus
are merging their bodies with those who do not serve Christ. It has led to a whole conversation about
being “unequally yoked.” That’s a
discussion I’ll leave for another time.
Instead, perhaps we would be wise to head the earlier admonition. Being that they have been washed clean (baptism)
and made holy God in the name of Christ and in the Spirit of God (do you hear
that Trinitarian formula in verse 11?).
Being that they have a new status, one that has given them freedom from
the bondage of their old lives, they need to be careful about what they do with
this freedom.

It is a word of great wisdom that Paul offers: “I have the freedom to do anything, but not
everything is helpful. I have the
freedom to anything, but I won’t be controlled by anything.” Freedom is ours, but so is responsibility – I
shall not be controlled by my desires and my appetites, but instead by the
leading of God who has freed me, cleansed me, and made me holy. I am called to live in this fashion – not
because it is the moral thing to do, but because I am the Temple of the Holy
Spirit. I am the dwelling place of
God. It is a difficult word to hear
because, well, too often I am controlled by my appetites. I am guilty as charged, and thus I am forced
to rely on the grace of God. But grace
is no excuse; it is simply a word of new beginnings.

In the Gospel of John we read what appears to be a call
story. Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael
to be disciples. Jesus finds Philip who
finds Nathanael, though Jesus is able to see Nathanael, before Philip ever goes
to call him to meet Jesus. But this is
more than a call story; it is a continuation of the unveiling of the Word in
human flesh, as defined by John in his prologue (vss. 1-14). When Philip invites Nathanael to meet Jesus
he points his friend to the testimony of the Law and the Prophets – he is,
Philip declares, the one we’ve been looking for. He is, therefore, the Messiah of God. One wonders about Nathanael’s initial perspective,
for according to John, Jesus says of this possible disciple: “Here is a genuine Israelite in whom there is
no deceit.” Could this mean that
Nathanael had questions and that Jesus found this attitude to be positive?

When Nathanael asks Jesus how he knows this about him,
Jesus tells him that he had seen him under a fig tree even before Philip went
to get him. This leads to a confession
of faith: “Rabbi, you are God’s
Son. You are the King of Israel.” Yes, Nathanael recognizes him to be the
Messiah. But Jesus presses – do you say
this because I saw you under a tree?
This is just the beginning, for greater things will come. And then Jesus says – Heaven will open and you
will see God’s angels going up and down between heaven and earth, to where the
Human One, the Son of Man is residing. The
reference to this opening of Heaven may have two referents – one would be a
hearkening back to the story of Jacob’s Ladder, where Jacob sees the heavens
open and a ladder going up into the sky upon which angels ascend and descend, leading
Jacob o declare: “The LORD is definitely
in this place, but I did not know it” (Gen. 28:16 CEB). The second might be the baptism of Jesus,
wherein God gave God’s imprimatur on Jesus’ ministry, declaring Jesus to be the
Son of God (Jn. 1:29-34).

For
John this episode is a revealing of the true identity of Jesus, the Word made
Flesh. For John, there is more to Jesus
than meets the eye. And the question
then is – how shall we respond? What
difference does this make to who I am and the way I live in the world? Indeed, will I answer, as does Samuel – “Speak
for your servant is listening.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

John 21:1-19 New
Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 21 After these things Jesus showed himself again to the
disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2 Gathered
there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in
Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3 Simon Peter
said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.”
They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the
disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, you
have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the
net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it,
and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7
That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was…

It makes sense to count the costs when deciding to make a big purchase such as a home or a car. Although it would seem prudent to sit down and “work the pencil,” not everyone takes the time to do so. One of the reasons why our nation is in the economic mess it’s in, is that too many people bought houses they couldn’t afford. Many were sucked in by suggestions that ours is an “ownership society,” offers of easy money, and promises that property was going to appreciate year after year, without end. In places like Southern California, Florida, and Las Vegas, everyone wanted to get on the band wagon as housing values increased at an annual rate of 25% to 45%. Many made a fortune, but as we’ve seen many more have lost untold millions. I wonder about how many people counted the cost before they bought? There was a war that our nation entered into In 2003. We were told that this war would be over quickly and with little sacrifice on our part. Just months after the invasion began…

Luke 4:21-30 New
Revised Standard Version (NRSV)21 Then he began to say to them,
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All
spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his
mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He
said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure
yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we
have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24 And he said,
“Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But
the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine
over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none
of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There
were also many lepers[a] in Israel in the time
of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the
Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the
synagogue were fil…

I am a Disciples of Christ pastor, theologian, community activist, historian, teacher. I'm a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with a M.Div. and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology. I'm the author of a number of books including
Out of the Office: A Theology of Ministry (Energion, 2017), Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016), and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015).